Warriors Misfired On Kobe

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 23, 1999

WATCHING KOBE Bryant almost single- handedly destroy the Warriors on Tuesday night, I thought back to a conversation I had with then general manager Dave Twardzik before the 1996 draft.

Bryant had declared for the draft, just coming out of high school, but Twardzik had no interest in him. Kevin Garnett had come directly from high school to the NBA the previous season, but Twardzik said there was no comparison: Literally and figuratively, Garnett was head and shoulders above his high school competition, but Bryant wasn't in that category.

Others thought that the fact that Bryant's father had been an NBA player would be a plus for Kobe, but Twardzik didn't think much of Joe Bryant, either.

Twardzik didn't say who he would draft, but he made it clear that he wouldn't take Bryant. And he didn't. Drafting No. 11 that year, the Warriors selected Todd Fuller. Two spots later, the Lakers traded Vlade Divac for Charlotte's pick and took Bryant.

In discussions of the Warriors' demise, Twardzik's role is usually overlooked because the meltdown caused by the feud between Don Nelson and Chris Webber was so spectacular.

Nelson tried some revisionist history in an interview on KNBR earlier this year, claiming that it was current owner Chris Cohan who was to blame because he wouldn't pay Webber what he was asking.

Not so. I had frequent conversations with Dan Finnane before he and Jim Fitzgerald sold the club to Cohan, and he consistently said the problem was Nelson's inability to deal with Webber. One time, Finnane had told Nelson he could reach an agreement on a long-term contract with Webber but Nelson advised him against it.

But if Nelson is to blame for the start of the Warriors' problems, he also deserves credit for what went before. He put together some very exciting teams in the pre-Webber era, and he was always a delight to watch on the sidelines, because he was a tactical genius.

His teams couldn't get far in the playoffs because they lacked a good big man, which is what caused him to go after Webber.

What happened after that wasn't pretty, but overall, Nelson brought many more good memories to Warriors fans than bad ones.

The same can't be said for Twardzik, whose time as general manager was an unmitigated disaster.

Twardzik had two shots at the draft. The first time, in 1995, he had the very first pick in the draft and took Joe Smith, who went downhill after a good rookie season and was traded last year. The second time, Twardzik took Fuller.

Taking Bryant in that draft would have been a gamble, but passing on him to take Fuller never made sense. From the start, Fuller had the look of a backup center-forward, which is what he's become. Bryant had the look of a player who might not make it at all but who had the physical ability to become a great player, as he's becoming with the Lakers.

But Twardzik was always going to make the safe choice, and safe choices doom a team to mediocrity or worse.

He also made the safe choice with his coach, Rick Adelman, and that changed the Warriors from mediocre to worse.

When Tim Hardaway and Latrell Sprewell battled for the leadership of the team, Adelman sided with Sprewell. He gave Sprewell freedom to free-lance -- the Warriors in Sprewell's last full season basically just cleared out one side of the floor to allow Sprewell to make his moves -- and he put Hardaway on the bench. Predictably, Hardaway didn't play well when he played, and he forced a trade to Miami.

Hardaway is still winning games for the Heat. You know what happened with Sprewell.

Carlesimo has done a remarkable job this season, considering that not one of his starters could be considered among the top 10 at his position in the league. Last season, he was often criticized for his "abrasive" style, though his style is no more abrasive than the styles of Pat Riley, Chuck Daly and Rick Pitino, but even his media critics have backed off this year.

St. Jean is a solid basketball man, who has made good moves since he took over. Even the Sprewell trade, which some thought got the Warriors too little in exchange, has worked out much better for the Warriors than it has for the Knicks.

But both men are handicapped by the decisions made earlier. Forget Webber. Just think how much better the Warriors would be if they had a backcourt of Hardaway and Bryant. One man stopped that, and he wasn't Don Nelson.

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